Hello everyone!
Is there a genetic study about Gallo-Italics of Sicily?
They were colonizers and soldiers brought to Sicily by Norman invaders in the eleventh century from their homeland in North Italy (and France?). Their descendants are still there.
Gallo-Italics of Sicily, also called Lombards of Sicily, are a linguistic minority living in Sicily, southern Italy, speaking an isolated variety of Gallo-Italic dialects (Western Lombard varieties in Sicily).
Lombards of Sicily settled the central and eastern part of Sicily about 900 years ago, coming from the Northern Italy, during the Norman conquest of Sicily. Because of linguistic differences among the Gallo-Italics dialects of Sicily, it is supposed that there were independent immigration routes. From Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia, Lombardy they began to spread south, between the 11th and 14th centuries.
The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina, Aidone, Sperlinga, San Fratello, Nicosia, and Novara di Sicilia. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked.
In the case of San Fratello, some linguists have suggested that the gallic-italic dialect present today has Provençal as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island).
Is there a genetic study about Gallo-Italics of Sicily?
They were colonizers and soldiers brought to Sicily by Norman invaders in the eleventh century from their homeland in North Italy (and France?). Their descendants are still there.
Gallo-Italics of Sicily, also called Lombards of Sicily, are a linguistic minority living in Sicily, southern Italy, speaking an isolated variety of Gallo-Italic dialects (Western Lombard varieties in Sicily).
Lombards of Sicily settled the central and eastern part of Sicily about 900 years ago, coming from the Northern Italy, during the Norman conquest of Sicily. Because of linguistic differences among the Gallo-Italics dialects of Sicily, it is supposed that there were independent immigration routes. From Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia, Lombardy they began to spread south, between the 11th and 14th centuries.
The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina, Aidone, Sperlinga, San Fratello, Nicosia, and Novara di Sicilia. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked.
In the case of San Fratello, some linguists have suggested that the gallic-italic dialect present today has Provençal as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island).
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